Rockies See First Snow of Season

by Live Science Staff | September 13, 2012 01:18pm ET

Summer is barely over but the first snow is already falling on the Colorado Rockies.

Webcam photos from Pikes Peak, a 14,000-foot-high (4,300-meter) mountain outside of Colorado Springs, Colo., showed snow dusting the summit today (Sept. 13). And further west, forecasters said 4 to 8 inches of snow are expected across the Sawatch Mountain Range, with local accumulations of 10 inches at higher elevations, according to AccuWeather.

Meteorologist Jim Andrews, of AccuWeather, said the September snow is not uncommon.

"This time of year, you get huge flips in the weather," Andrews explained. "There is a cold outbreak occurring behind a norther [cold] front compared to a summer, southwesterly flow that the region has been experiencing recently."

This also means that cities like Denver and other parts of Colorado will see temperatures drop, though no snow yet. Highs have hovered around 90 degrees Fahrenheit in Denver in the past few days, but today, predicted highs are in the 60s, according to AccuWeather.

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